Caught Between India and China

Recently, thousands of soldiers of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army held live fire war games in Tibet, taking part in a simulated invasion of India. As most are aware, India and China have had a less than friendly relationship ever since Indian independence. In 1959 Indian and Chinese forces clashed when the Chinese suppressed an uprising in occupied Tibet, at the same time as India granted asylum to the Dalai Lama of Tibet. The Himalayan border region between India and China was in dispute between the two countries, just as China has had border and territorial disputes with practically every neighboring country with some (Vietnam and Russia for example) simply conceding territory in order to improve relations with China. India, however, was less sanguine about doing so and was feeling particularly assertive after gaining independence. After many years of championing non-violent resistance and the peaceful resolution of disputes, in 1961 the Indian government demonstrated that it would resort to military force to solve such problems when India invaded and annexed the Portuguese coastal enclaves (principally Goa).

Communist China, while likewise viewing Portugal as an enemy and cheering the downfall of European colonial empires, was nonetheless quick to point to this expansion by India as proof that their territorial dispute was unlikely to be settled peacefully. The following year, in October of 1962, Chinese military forces launched a two-pronged offensive into the disputed territory. The Chinese overran the Indian border posts, inflicted heavy losses on the Indians and generally gained what they wanted. Their objectives having been achieved, in November the Chinese announced a cease-fire and the war ended with China retaining control of Aksai Chin which remains part of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China to this day. Later, in 1967, there were two minor skirmishes between Indian and Chinese forces in the Indian state of Sikkim and it was with an eye to Sikkim that the latest Chinese war games were held; a possible dress-rehearsal for war with India over this obscure province. Keep that in mind.

Indian monument to pro-Axis leader Bose

Tensions between India and China have also continued on numerous fronts. In economic terms, the two countries have for some time competed as the primary source of cheap labor for Western Europe and North America. India has been increasingly alarmed at Chinese naval expansion into the Indian Ocean and India is friendly with countries China is not very friendly with, particularly Japan. Famously, it was an Indian judge who was the sole dissenting vote in the Tokyo War Crimes Trials after World War II, basically agreeing that the Japanese were their would-be liberators from British rule and taking up, along with the right-wing in Japan, the vision of “Asia for the Asians” and cheering on the pledged Japanese war aim to eradicate the European presence in Asia. China, of course, takes an extremely different view of the war and probably despises Japan more than any other country on earth. Also, thanks to all the years of the “One Child” policy in China, India is set to soon overtake China as the most populous nation in the world which will undoubtedly help keep labor cheap in India and thus make India an increasingly more lucrative source of exports than China with its growing middle class.

Sikkim's last King & Queen

Because of all of this, conflict may be unavoidable, however, there is something that can be done to at least make such a thing more difficult or delay it and that involves the area under dispute itself. Some readers here may be aware but the general public is certainly not that Sikkim was, not so long ago, an independent country, it was the Kingdom of Sikkim. Like the nearby Kingdom of Bhutan, it was largely unknown to the outside world for most of history and it probably only briefly became known to the west in 1963 when the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Palden Thondup Namgyal, married a young American girl named Hope Cooke. She was his second wife, his first wife (a Tibetan) having died in 1957. This briefly made the Kingdom of Sikkim the talk of the town, at least in the United States, to see a young, well-to-do American girl from New York City becoming the Queen consort of this remote, hitherto unknown Himalayan kingdom. Her husband became the King (or Chogyal) of Sikkim shortly after their marriage upon the death of his father in 1963 and his coronation in 1965 attracted quite a bit of attention.

The Kingdom of Sikkim was also no backward state living in primitive isolation. Although very small and having few resources, King Namgyal was actually quite successful at improving his tiny country. During his rather brief reign, while most people still lived very modestly by western standards, Sikkim became relatively better off than its neighbors. The literacy rate and per capita income in the Kingdom of Sikkim was double that in India, Bhutan and Nepal. Things were improving, Sikkim was doing well and becoming more educated and more productive under its new monarch. King Namgyal had been the leader of those who negotiated the normalization of relations between India and Sikkim when India became independent. Previously, the British Empire had maintained the same sort of relationship it had with most of the other numerous kings, princes, rajas and so forth of the region. He knew that things would be different after Indian independence and he was not wrong about that.

King Palden Thondup Namgyal & Queen Hope

The Kingdom of Sikkim, of course, knew it could not defy India alone and so, in 1950, agreed to maintain essentially the same relationship with India as it had done with the British, in other words, Sikkim was officially independent but a protectorate of India. However, there was a pro-Indian faction in the country, backed by India of course, which sought to imitate India to the point of establishing a political movement known as the Sikkim National Congress (in imitation of the Indian National Congress). This Indian-backed movement gained power in the 1974 elections (something which may explain why Bhutan would have nothing to do with democracy until recently) and immediately began trying to liberalize the country. The King blocked them, and rightly so, after which this group drew up a new constitution which India all but forced the King to accept. Naturally, the next step was annexation. The King, powerless to resist, could only try to beat his enemies at their own game so he called for a referendum to settle the issue on September 8, 1974. He would get his referendum and in the usual way such referendums are traditionally held, which is to say unfairly.

On April 9, 1975 the Indian army, which was supposed to “protect” the tiny country, instead invaded Sikkim, which was powerless to resist them, and after his guard was overpowered and disarmed, the King was arrested and confined to his palace. The local pro-Indian government, backed by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, unanimously voted to abolish the monarchy and for Sikkim to be annexed by India. It was only then, after the occupation of Sikkim by the Indian military, that a referendum was held the following month, at a time and with voting locations that would mean many locals would be unable to reach them. The result was a forgone conclusion, returning a result of over 97% in favor of annexation to the Indian republic. Bitter locals reported that the vast majority of those voting had been Indians and not natives of Sikkim at all. Within a matter of days Gandhi and the Indian government passed the appropriate measures to make Sikkim a state in India and abolishing the monarchy.

In happier days

China and Pakistan, no friends of India, criticized the move, the Soviet Union praised it and the United States did little more than shrug. King Namgyal rightly denounced the referendum as “illegal and unconstitutional”. The King had a sad life from then on, as tends to happen in such cases. He went into exile, was divorced from Queen Hope in 1980 and in 1982 died of cancer in New York. His son and heir, Prince Tobgyal Wangchuk Tenzing Namgyal, was allowed to use the title of king but, obviously, it is purely honorary and he has no official position or actual authority. Educated in England, he is now in his 60’s and is largely forgotten by the rest of the world though the loyal locals in Sikkim still know him as the man who should be king. I know nothing else about the man but what he represents does present at least a partial solution to the current problem. Rather than a war between India and China over Sikkim, which both claim they wish to avoid, surely a better answer, fair to both sides, would be to say that neither are entitled to the area and for it to be restored as the sovereign Kingdom of Sikkim under its rightful heir.

The last King of Sikkim

Personally, I do not think that the republicanization of the Himalayan region has been an accident, yet, at every step the rest of the world has looked the other way as the local monarchies have been overthrown and India and China have inched ever closer to each other and ever closer to confrontation. Simply look at the historical timeline: in 1950 the Chinese occupied Tibet, in 1959 the Dalai Lama was forced into exile in India. In 1975 the Kingdom of Sikkim was invaded and annexed by India. In 1996 a Maoist Communist insurgency began in the Kingdom of Nepal. In 2005 the King of Bhutan made his country a constitutional monarchy, embraced multi-party democracy and ended its policy of isolation, hoping, I think to strengthen itself through ties with major foreign powers. Finally, in 2008 the Nepalese monarchy was overthrown and Nepal became a republic with a Maoist becoming the first republican Prime Minister. This has left only little Bhutan as the last monarchial holdout in the entire Himalayan region. It broke my heart when Bhutan shifted to openness and democracy and, though it is only an opinion, the only reason I have been able to come up with to explain this change, which the people had not wanted or asked for, was because the King hoped to gain greater security from the international community.

As such, I would propose that the Kingdom of Sikkim should be restored. I would want the same for Nepal and even for Tibet though that is surely expecting too much. Let these places be restored and make them absolutely “hands off” to the military forces of China and India alike. A monarchical buffer to keep India and China at a distance might be of benefit, not only to those involved, but to the wider world, including those countries which might be drawn in to another, even more serious, Sino-Indian conflict.

Royal Profile: Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh

Mahendra Pratap is a famous name in India and a man of very royal roots and connections. However, his path in life was not a royalist one. He devoted himself to the cause of Indian independence but at the same time, to create a very new sort of India, influenced by western political ideas (and often not the best of those) rather than a restoration of traditional Indian glory. He was born on December 1, 1886 in the Aligarh District of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, the third son of Raja Ghanshiam Singh Bahadur of Mursan in the Hathras District of Uttar Pradesh. The Mughal emperors had bestowed on the head of the family the title of Raja Bahadur and the ancestral state of Mahendra Pratap resisted fiercely when the British arrived and began expanding their influence in India. Eventually, they were defeated by the British and pro-British forces so that the family was left with a reduced number of villages and no political power. With such a background, it is little wonder that Mahendra Pratap would ultimately devote his life to ending British rule in India. When he was only three years old he was adopted by another princely family that had fought against the British, unsuccessfully, and had been dispossessed by 1818. This was the family of Raja Harnarain singh Sahib of Hathras.

The grandfather of Raja Harnairain, Raja Dayaram, had resisted the British and been forced to flee to central India but his son restored the family fortune by siding with the British during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 in return for which his title was restored to him and he was given control of a number of districts but died soon after. Hathras was not one of the areas restored to his control and so many locals attributed his death to a broken heart. Young Mahendra Pratap grew up with this family in the Vrindavan Palace and had a very happy childhood, living in splendor and surrounded by a loving family. He was given a good education but even in his youth displayed a distinct lack of interest in his royal status, a concern for the common people and a burning desire to drive the British out of India. While in college in 1902 he married the daughter of a Jat Sikh family from the Jind princely state of Haryana in what was then Punjab named Maharani Balbir Kaur. She died in 1925 but in his later career, Mahendra Pratap would make much of the religious diversity of his family connections, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and portray himself as a representative of the vast diversity of India. And that was something he knew very well as he, along with his brother, traveled extensively until he had visited practically every corner of the immense Empire of India.

It is worth noting that, in his travels, he seemed to interpret everything he saw according to the radical ideologies he had picked up in college and was becoming rather Marxist in his worldview. When he traveled around India, he seemed to only see the negative, the poor, the victimized and little else save for the variety of peoples and beliefs that might pose a problem in his dream of uniting all Indians in opposition to British rule and the whole of traditional Indian society as it had been. Still, he went home to his own palace and was not above using his princely connections to further his own cause. He was able to meet with other pro-independence notables, promote education and household industries to further the cause of economic independence. Eventually this led him to take the dramatic step of leading a campaign to burn all foreign-made clothes in his state. Frustrated by the relatively small impact he was having at home, in 1914 he decided to go abroad and to seek foreign assistance for removing the British from India. Obviously, it was an ideal time as August of 1914 saw the British Empire take on some powerful enemies.

Mahendra Pratap made it to Switzerland and it was there that his cause and that of the German Empire found each other, working through the man who would later be made famous by a telegram, Arthur Zimmermann in the German Foreign Office. Zimmermann, who would also promote the use of the communists to undermine the Russian Empire, was enthusiastic in supporting Indian revolutionaries to undermine the British Empire. Mahendra Pratap was just as eager but insisted on meeting Kaiser Wilhelm II himself, which he did. The Kaiser decorated him with the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle and discussed with Mahendra Pratap an idea the Germans had long pinned some hope on; an invasion of India through Afghanistan. Already allied with the Ottoman Empire of Turkey, it was hoped that Muslim solidarity with the Central Powers would be easy to achieve and that the appearance of even a modest force on the northern border would incite Indians of all backgrounds to rise up against the British Raj and few doubted that Great Britain would be crippled by the loss of India. It was not a new idea. Shortly before the war broke out, the Kaiser, in one of his troublesome marginal notes, wrote, “Our consuls in Turkey and India, agents, etc., must inflame the whole Mohammedan world to wild revolt against this hateful, lying, conscienceless people of hagglers; for if we are to be bled to death, at least England shall lose India.”

The prince was introduced to men in the German army and officials in Austria-Hungary. He met the Khedive of Egypt while in Vienna and later when on to the Ottoman Empire where he was also warmly received. A German-Turkish expedition set out across Persia to Afghanistan led by General Oskar Ritter von Niedermayer and the diplomat Werner Otto von Hentig. On December 1, 1915 Pratap set up a provisional government in Kabul, Afghanistan for “Free Hindustan” with himself serving as President and other prominent advocates of independence in lesser posts. The Muslims added their voice to that of the Ottoman Sultan by declaring a jihad against the British Empire of India but obtaining the support of the Emir of Afghanistan proved frustrating and ultimately impossible. He demanded much but refused to commit himself and, unaware that the British were already giving him more than the Germans ever would to stay on side, the effort was finally abandoned in disgust. There would be no Muslim army to attack northern India and there would be no mass Indian uprising against the British in World War I. The would-be president was left without a job but he still had enough Marxist credentials to be invited to Russia after the Bolsheviks seized power by Vladimir Lenin.

The provisional government in Kabul

Mahendra Pratap went to the emerging Soviet Union and Lenin rolled out the red carpet for him (so to speak). At that time, it was probably easy to be taken in by Lenin who had yet to actually do very much but was full of utopian promises about what the future of the Soviet Union would look like and what a Marxist vision of socialist paradise it would become. Pratap did not stay long enough to see the nightmare the USSR would grow into as things were far from stable and the British were beginning to make a serious effort to apprehend the troublesome prince. When World War I came to an end with the Allies victorious and the British Empire enlarged, he found himself effectively back where he had started with his former powerful friends in Berlin, Vienna and Constantinople all gone. Returning to India seemed out of the question so, in 1925, he traveled to the Empire of Japan which had long been a haven for Asians who dreamed of independence from European colonial rule. His vision for a free India, it must be remembered, was a totally alien and revolutionary one. Aside from his Central Powers backers, the only Allied countries to look with any favor on his “Free India” attempted government were the United States and Russia and despite his pedigree, it infuriated him that the monarchs of India had opposed his anti-British scheme for armed rebellion.

In fact, his tendency toward collectivism seemed to grow ever stronger and he even tried to set up his own brand of religion which was to be a sort of combination of all beliefs with the only dogmas being that all religions be accepted, all faiths, all races and all classes be united with no discrimination and all treated equally. He even dreamed of such collectivism on a global scale by doing away with the unequal institutions of the past and creating a sort of world federation where all humanity would be united and everyone would be the same. He set up a “World Federation Centre” to promote such ideas but had been largely sidelined by the time of World War II. Although still in Japan, it was another revolutionary, Subhas Chandra Bose, and another provisional government of Free India that would gain support from the Axis powers in another effort to provoke an Indian rebellion against Britain. Another socialist, though a more authoritarian one, Bose would be no more successful than his predecessor though he did at least manage to get some Indian rebel troops onto Indian soil for a clash with the British but it was swiftly turned back.

In 1946 Mahendra Pratap was finally allowed to return to India where the first thing he did was rush to meet the rising star of Mahatma Gandhi. The following year, Great Britain granted India independence and Mahendra Pratap spent the rest of his days continuing to push his political agenda, basically railing against the elites (of which he himself was a member, in both the old and new versions of India), being elected to office, presiding over Jat gatherings and advocating for greater power for local assemblies. It was not exactly the fate he had hoped for when he stood as provisional President of Free India but, despite his defeats in working with foreign powers in an attempt to overthrow British rule, there is no doubt that the India created after independence has more in common with his vision than that of the traditional India that existed before the arrival of the British (or any other Europeans) and which had endured throughout the Raj. Whether it is better or not would depend on the view one has of Indian history and the heights achieved in those days the current republic has separated itself from. Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh died on April 29, 1979.

Favorite Royal Images: Turkish-Indian Princess

Princess Niloufer Farhat Begum Sahiba

a relative (on her mother's side) of the Ottoman Imperial Family, she was the first wife of 

Prince Moazzam Jah, younger son of the last Nizam of Hyderabad in India

Royal News Roundup

Starting in the Far East, on Thursday the Imperial Household Agency announced that Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress will be visiting Iwate Prefecture on July 4 & 5 to meet with and encourage the people affected by the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011. It will be the second time the Imperial couple have visited Iwate since the disaster. The schedule released says Their Majesties will visit temporary housing units in Tono on July 4, meet with evacuees, support staff and workers and will then visit the devastated coastal cities of Ofunato and Rikuzentakata on July 5. In Ofunato they will tour a plan which uses debris from the disaster to make cement used in repair work and in Rikuzentakata Their Majesties will meet with Mayor Futoshi Toba to hear his report on the progress of recovery work as well as visiting a temporary housing complex set up on the grounds of the local junior high school. Later in the month the Imperial couple may visit Fukushima Prefecture as well but no definite decision has been made according to the IHA. Further to the south in Malaysia, the King has urged the people to accept the results of the recent thirteenth general election and to support all newly elected members of parliament in working for the greater good of the whole country. The recent election has been marked by quite a few disturbances and complaints that the ruling party used some rather under-handed tactics in the voting process. And, moving west, in India the unofficial King of Manipur, HH LeishembaSanajaoba, has gone on a hunger strike to protest the decision by the state cabinet to take over his royal palace in Imphal. Demonstrators have been guarding the palace and protesting the decision, which is not the first time the government has tried to seize the Manipur royal palace. Of course, we wish the King every success in retaining his palace and salute his defense of the rights of kings and the private property rights of all people.

The biggest royal news this week came out of the Middle East where the Emir of Qatar officially abdicated and handed power over to his son, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. It is certainly different from what happened in 1995 when Sheikh Hamad (the now former Emir) overthrew his own father to take the throne which he has held until now. The new Emir of Qatar is British educated, a graduate of Sandhurst (for American readers that’s basically the British version of West Point) and some have pointed to this change of monarch as part of the ongoing “Arab Spring” movement which has swept North Africa and the Middle East. Many monarchies in the region supported the “Arab Spring” in other countries but resisted any outbreak of similar movement in their own countries. Qatar is not expected to turn wildly democratic anytime soon, however, Qatar has been a major supporter of the rebel forces fighting in Syria to overthrow the ruling dictator Bashar al-Assad. Observers are now waiting to see if the new Emir will continue the policies of his father or take Qatar in a new direction. Meanwhile, at a conference on boring things where important people talk excessively, HM King Abdullah II of Jordan took time out from world economics to warn about the danger of the Syrian civil war sparking a wider sectarian war in the Middle East unless outside forces intervened to set up peace talks as well as warning that Palestine could erupt in an “Arab Spring” type revolt if Israel did not make concessions soon. He welcomed the latest call by the Obama administration to resume peace talks but warned that time was running out for Israel to stop building settlements.

In Europe, things were fairly quiet this week. One item that I cannot avoid commenting on though is the recent outrageous behavior directed at HM Queen Sofia of Spain. Queen Sofia, as most probably know, is a big fan of classical music and this week attended the International Music Day concert at the Royal Theatre in Madrid. Unfortunately, when she appeared there were jeers and shouting from hecklers in the crowd and this is not the first time the Queen has had to deal with booing and hissing from a crowd lately. Nor is she the only one as HM King Juan Carlos and TRH the Prince and Princess of the Asturias have received similar treatment. That is what I find most alarming. The anti-royal sentiment that has been aroused (an an intentional effort to draw attention away from the political elite and their policies that have ruined the Spanish economy I am convinced) is now apparently approaching the point of mindless hysteria. After all, not too many years ago any disrespect toward the King would have been unthinkable but that is not the case anymore. The vast majority once had all the respect and sympathy in the world for the Queen, then she started to be criticized for her Orthodox-Catholic values and now she is even being jeered at in public. Still, that being done, we were told not to panic because the Prince and Princess of the Asturias were untouched by all the current unpleasantness and are the popular, beloved face of the future Spanish monarchy. Well, they have not been immune from rude treatment either and it seems that more people are choosing to turn off their brains and be hateful at the most prominent targets available. All monarchists should take care of this change in the wind because such ignorant acting out is one of the unfailing symptoms of a mob mentality.

Consort Profile: Queen Lakshmibai of Jhansi

Although little known outside of India, Lakshmibai, Rani (or Queen) of Jhansi was one of the leading figures in the Indian Mutiny of 1857, aka the First Indian War of Independence or the Sepoy Rebellion. She was born Manikarnika on November 19, 1828 in Kasi (Varanasi) into a family of the Brahmin class. Originally known as Manu, she was only four years old when her mother died and her upbringing was left solely to her father. Perhaps as a result of that she was trained in horsemanship, shooting and swordsmanship as well as the usual scholarly subjects of a traditional education. It was a system she would maintain all throughout her life. In 1842 she was married to Gangadhar Rao the Maharaja of Jhansi and became known officially as Maharani Laksmi Bai of Jhansi. In 1851 she gave birth to a son but, sadly, the baby died within three months. After this tragedy, the royal couple adopted a child but ran into trouble with the growing influence of the British in India who did not recognize the adoptee as a legitimate heir. Not surprisingly, this did not incline the Rani to have very positive feelings about the British East India Company, yet it never rose to the level of prejudice. Still, she remained wary of the growing British influence throughout the neighboring states of India.

Not long after, on November 21, 1853, the Maharaja died leaving Rani Lakshmibai a widow at the age of 18. It was then up to her to defend Jhansi alone but she proved more than up to the task and rejected all offers the British made to her. Yet, over time, as with all the other states one by one, Jhansi did come, effectively, under British control. After the death of the Maharaja the British East India Company did not recognize his adopted son as the new monarch and annexed Jhansi to their territories. The Rani was given a pension and ordered to leave her palace. Yet, Rani Lakshmibai did not change her strict daily routine though, which included regular religious observances, martial arts practice and charitable giving to the poor. She accepted things she could not change and determined to continue forward and live as she always had. Despite her difficulties with the Company, when the mutiny of 1857 broke out there was no certainty about what Rani Lakshmibai would do. Certainly she sympathized with the idea of Indian self-rule but not all of the rebel forces were in agreement or had the same aims and motives in mind.

The Rani was not anxious for trouble and had no desire to see bloodshed in her country but all the same she came to be viewed as an enemy of the British early on after a group of mutineers massacred those at a British post, including the women and children, for which the Rani was assumed to be responsible (though this was a mistaken assumption as she actually had nothing to do with it). Further complicating things was the fact that some of the mutineers tried to take advantage of the war to seize control of Jhansi for themselves. This was not an uncommon problem in the course of this early conflict which had begun spontaneously with no central leader or strategy. However, Rani Lakshmibai was able to overcome them, Jhansi was won back and the Rani restored it to some of its former glory and even assembled an army of women warriors to fight alongside the male army. Given that, it should not be considered shocking that she had first presented herself as an ally of the British because of how the rebels had treated her and her country but the British rejected her hand of friendship due to the misplaced blame placed on her for the earlier massacre.

In 1858 a powerful British force under Sir Hugh Rose marched on Jhansi and demanded the Rani surrender, promising total destruction if he was refused. Rani Lakshmibai famously replied,
“We fight for independence. In the words of Lord Krishna, we will if we are victorious, enjoy the fruits of victory, if defeated and killed on the field of battle, we shall surely earn eternal glory and salvation”. Enduring a siege, bombardment and final attack, she and her forces offered heroic and determined resistance to the British onslaught before the fight became clearly hopeless. As her forces were being overrun the Rani finally determined that she would have to escape the palace and attempt to join with other rebel groups to continue the struggle. Wearing a disguise, she took her son and a few guards and slipped out on horseback in a harrowing escape. She managed to find other compatriots and they made their next stand at Kalpi where the Rani again played a leading role in the defense of the place before again being overcome by the attacking British army. Still, once again, she and the other leaders managed to escape again and regrouped at Gwalior. However, while the other leaders concerned themselves with politics they ignored the urging of Rani Lakshmibai to prepare to defend the place from the inexorable advance of the British. Finally determined to leave the area, the Rani was in the process of leaving when the British caught up with her, including the cavalry of the Eighth King‘s Royal Irish Hussars. She dressed as a sowar and charged the enemy, going down fighting on June 18, 1858.

Royal News Roundup

The first of the two biggest royal news stories this week came from the Far East where HM the “King-Father” Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia died in a hospital in Peking after years of deteriorating health. The King presided over Cambodian independence from France before trying to remain neutral in the war engulfing Vietnam. Overthrown in a US-backed coup by one his generals (while out of the country) the King was kept under house arrest for the most part during Pol Pot’s reign of terror. In the aftermath of the Vietnamese invasion that expelled the dictator the King was restored in a UN-backed referendum. He was the only Southeast Asian royal to regain his throne once it was lost and the last surviving leader from the decades of conflict that gripped Indochina. The body of the late King was escorted to the Royal Palace with all of the pomp and ceremony Cambodia could muster and will remain there for the next three months before his burial ceremony. King Bhumibol Adulyadej the Great of neighboring Thailand, himself in increasingly poor health, sent his condolences to the Cambodian people on this sad occasion. Virtually no one in Cambodia has known a world without King Sihanouk in it.

Happier news prevailed in India with a low-key royal wedding by a couple better known for their celebrity status than royal origins. On Tuesday HH Prince Saif Ali Khan of Pataudi married his girlfriend of five years Kareena Kapoor in Bombay. It is the second marriage for Prince Khan who inherited the title of Nawab of Pataudi upon the death of his father (a famous cricket champion) last year. Kapoor may not be from a princely family but she is from ‘Bollywood royalty’ with a family that has long been famous in the film and entertainment industry.

Finally, in Europe, the biggest royal story of the week was also the best kind; a happy royal romance with the wedding of HRH Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg and Countess Stephanie de Lannoy. It was a fairly casual and low key affair, starting at the Grand Ducal Palace and then, in a small but smart procession the dashing duke and his cute countess moved on to the Grande Threatre de la Ville de Luxembourg for their civil wedding ceremony. Among the royal guests besides the immediate Grand Ducal family of Luxembourg were Her Majesty Queen Fabiola of Belgium, still serene and stately even in a wheelchair, along with other royals from Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Liechtenstein, Denmark, Romania. Britain was represented by Prince Edward and Countess Sophie and there were royals from beyond European shores from Morocco, Jordan, Japan and elsewhere further afield. With the wedding made official, the Hereditary Grand Duke became the last European royal heir to marry and the Countess became Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie of Luxembourg, becoming a citizen of Luxembourg as well as her native Belgium. We join all those loyal subjects of the Grand Duke and all the other fans of the House of Luxembourg in sending congratulations to the happy couple and wishing them all the best in their life together. The religious ceremony is being held this morning and there will be many more celebrations, fireworks and all the best that Luxembourg can boast on this most happy occasion.

Consort Profile: Empress Mumtaz Mahal of India

Empress Mumtaz Mahal is one of the great romantic royal figures of history and while many people have probably never heard of her, absolutely everyone recognizes her final resting place, possibly the most famous monument to royal love in the world. But, more than just a pretty face, she was also one of the two great Mughal women who drove a number of reforms in the empire. She was born in Agra in April of 1593 as Arjumand Banu Begum, the daughter of Abdul Hasan Asaf Khan and a Persian princess. Her beauty and charm were legendary and when she first met the future Mughal Emperor, then Prince Khurram, it was a case of love at first sight. Struck by the stunning princess, the prince would have no other and the two were betrothed in 1607 when she was fourteen. Shah Jahan was so enamored with her that he swore he would have no other woman but her and that none could compare to her perfection. Given that, the only surprise is that it took five years before they were formally married in 1612. Romance aside, in keeping with tradition, Shah Jahan had two other wives as well but one can only feel sorry for the other two as there was never any doubt that Mumtaz Mahal was his favorite. Shah Jahan gave her that name, Mumtaz Mahal, which means “Jewel of the Palace” as a mark of his favor as well as entrusting her with the royal seal, Mehr Uzaz.

As with many royal marriages of the time, Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal were related. Her aunt Nurjahan was the wife of Shah Jahan’s father Jahangir but, after an initial period of favor, Nurjahan became prejudiced against her niece when one of her daughters from a previous marriage married Shah Jahan’s brother. With Shah Jahan, however, she was his greatest happiness on the world and traveled with him throughout the Mughal empire. Poets and songwriters wrote glowing, flowery tributes to her charm, beauty, grace and compassion. The other wives of Shah Jahan were treated correctly but were more like friends than anything else as it was always only Mumtaz Mahal who held his heart. From the days when he was a prince, chased about as a rebel, to the days when he ruled the Mughal Empire, Mumtaz Mahal was his constant companion, closest advisor, refuge and comfort. A compassionate woman, she influenced her husband toward justice and mercy and through her new rights and privileges for women became the law of the land in the Mughal Empire. Everyone adored her, none more than her husband, who lavished every devotion on her that it was in his power to give.

During their marriage, Mumtaz Mahal was gave birth to fourteen children, though half of them died in infancy. Whether it was watching elephant fights in the arena or going on military campaigns, the Empress never wished to leave the side of her husband and it pained him deeply to ever have her out of his sight. Their devotion to each other reached legendary proportions, it was truly a romance for the ages and one unsullied by suspicious, jealously or intrigues for political power as were all too common. It helped that the reign of Shah Jahan was known, even then, as a “Golden Age” for Mughal India, of power, prosperity and artistic masterpieces and at the center of it all was the devoted Emperor and Empress. Also noteworthy is the fact that, unlike at least one or two other notable consorts, Mumtaz Mahal never tried to influence her husband on political issues and certainly never attempted to consolidate any political power for herself. Rather, she used her influence only in the area of social issues to help those in need and she was always supportive of her husband, his decisions and his policies.

Mumtaz Mahal accompanied the Emperor whenever possible, despite being almost constantly pregnant. It was on one such occasion that her life was cut tragically short, journeying with Shah Jahan while he was waging war on the Deccan Plateau of central India. The Empress was at Burhanpur when she went into labor to give birth to her fourteenth child. Complications set in and she died on June 17, 1631. To say that Shah Jahan was grief-stricken would be an immense understatement. The Emperor was positively unhinged with sorrow at the loss of his most beloved wife. No one could comfort him, no one could calm him and for a year he cut himself off from the world as he mourned his wife who had been his greatest happiness in the world. His hair reportedly turned white, he seemed to age rapidly and forever after had the appearance of a bent and sorrowful old man.

When finally he regained his composure, with the help of his eldest daughter, the Emperor determined to build a monumental tomb for his beloved wife that would stand as a testament to her glory and his great affection for her. The result was the magnificent and world famous Taj Mahal at Agra which took thousands of Mughal artisans 22 years to complete and which covers some 1,003 acres. To this day it is considered perhaps the most spectacular achievement of Mughal architecture in India, the centerpiece of which is the massive, white marble tomb beneath which rest the bodies of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan. It is all set in the midst of vast and magnificent gardens and it is all a tribute to one of the most beloved royal consorts in world history and a monument to one of the greatest royal romances of all time.

Favorite Royal Images: A Royal Celebrity

Indian film star Raima Dev Sen Verma is the daughter of Moon Moon Sen and Bharat Dev Varma, a member of the Royal Family of Tripura, India. Her grandmother was Princess Ila Devi of Cooch Behar and her aunt was Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur. Her great-grandmother, Princess Indira, was the only daughter of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda.

MM Video: Royal India

Favorite Royal Images: Actress Princess

If you happen to be an Indian TV or film fan you may recognize the name Bhagyashree. Bhagyashree Patwardhan has been a rather prominent star in her native India for some time now. She also happens to be royalty, the oldest of three daughters of His Highness Meherban Shrimant Raja Vijaysinhrao Madhavrao Patwardhan. She is also not the only famous actress of royal blood in the subcontinent. Moon Moon Sen, her daughters Raima Sen and Riya Sen also have royal blood in their veins.

Monarch Profile: King Palden Thondup Namgyal of Sikkim

The twelfth and last King of Sikkim was born Prince Palden Thondup Namgyal on May 23, 1923 to King Tashi Namgyal whose reign saw the transfer of Sikkim as a protectorate of the British Empire to a protectorate of India. As a child Prince Palden was sent to St Joseph’s Convent in Kalimpong for his education but was later forced to leave due to a long bout of malaria. In the tradition of Sikkim, a Buddhist kingdom (the Prince’s father had been born in Tibet and crowned by the Dalai Lama) from the age of 8 to 11 Prince Palden studied to become a monk under his uncle Rimpoche Lhatsun and was recognized as the reincarnation of the leaders of Phodong and Rumtek monasteries. He later furthered his education at St Joseph’s College in Darjeeling (previously ceded to Britain by Sikkim) and he graduated from Bishop Cotton School in Simla in 1941.

To prepare him for his future leadership role Prince Palden was given the position of internal affairs advisor by his father and he led the team of negotiators which worked out the special relationship between the newly independent India and the Kingdom of Sikkim. In 1950 he married his first wife, Sangey Deki, daughter of a Tibetan nobleman, by whom he had two children. Unfortunately, the princess died in 1957. In 1963, however, United States and world attention came to Sikkim when the Prince married the 22-year-old New York native Hope Cooke. The couple eventually had two children; Prince Palden and Princess Hope Leezum. At that time many people in America and the wider world had never heard of Sikkim but they were impressed by what they saw, a peaceful little country of friendly, religious people who lived modestly but happily. However, the victory of republicanism in India and growing tensions due to political changes there and in China and Tibet meant that troublesome times were ahead.

On December 2, 1963, upon the death of his father, Palden Thondup Namgyal became Chogyal or King of Sikkim. As is the tradition in Sikkim (and other countries in the region) his coronation did not take place until 1965 on a date determined as particularly auspicious by the court astrologers. A great deal of nonsense has been written about the last King of Sikkim; that he was incompetent, erratic, never respected, widely unpopular and ineffective. That, of course, comes from those sources opposed to the monarchy from the start and since then from those who have a vested interest in upholding the loss of independence. Originally, the core of opposition to the King came from the (no surprise) professional politicians, especially the largely Nepalese bureaucrats who formed their own cabal to bring down the monarchy in 1973. For those inclined to view the last King of Sikkim as a failure, a few statistics are worth remembering (and lest anyone think these come from a biased source, that source is Time magazine -hardly a monarchist publication). During his reign literacy in Sikkim rose from 25% to over 40%, the number of children attending school quadrupled, government revenues doubled, road mileage tripled, average per-capita income rose by a third and electricity became widely available for the first time in history.

When problems arose they came from areas beyond the King’s control such as a particularly harsh monsoon season late in his reign which caused floods and landslides that caused $28 million in damages; roughly 14 times the entire annual budget of the little kingdom. And on that occasion both the King and Queen spent a month traveling across country by jeep and horseback to survey the damage and help in any way they could. There were also increasing tensions with India with whom both the King and his father had always tried to maintain good relations. The tiny army of Sikkim were equipped by India and had Indian officers in charge of them so any impartial observer could hardly view Sikkim as a threat to India or in any way hostile or distrustful of them. Yet, the conspiracy to bring down the monarchy pushed forward, there was trumped up agitation by the professional rabble-rousers and anything was used as an excuse to argue for the end of the monarchy and annexation by India. Even an article written by the Queen pointing out borderlands that had previously belonged to Sikkim but which were then ruled by India were used to paint the monarchy as ambition, perhaps even dangerous. It was a farce of course, the second most populous country on earth declaring that a tiny mountain kingdom with a 300-man army led by Indian officers was a threat!

Nonetheless, in 1974 India moved to occupy and annex Sikkim. On April 8, 1975 tanks and infantry of the Indian army surrounded the palace, killing one of the King’s guards. The King could do little except to write to Mrs. Indira Gandhi who had ordered the invasion, expressing his dismay. Of course, nothing was done. The King was deposed, kept under surveillance by Indian authorities and after a rather suspect referendum, while under Indian occupation remember, which resulted in a ridiculous 97% vote in favor of annexation, Sikkim became the 22nd state of the Indian Union on May 16, 1975. After that time, the life of the powerless King Palden Thondup Namgyal became a succession of tragedies. In 1980 he and his wife, Queen Hope, divorced and not long after the former monarch died of cancer in New York City on January 29, 1982. Seeing his suffering and downward spiral after losing his country, however, many of his people said the real cause of his death was a broken heart.

Today, there is still a King in Sikkim, the second son of King Palden Thondup Namgyal, King Wangchuck Namgyal, however he is a ceremonial monarch only and simply participates in an unofficial capacity in local cultural and religious ceremonies. Many in Sikkim still blame India for fomenting the troubles that were the pretext for their annexation and there are still those in Sikkim today who advocate for a restoration of their monarchy.

Remember Sikkim

I hope to get more into this subject in the future (it has been on my 'to do' list for a while) but in the meantime the Radical Royalist has provided some valuable information on the seemingly forgotten Kingdom of Sikkim, an independent monarchy absorbed by the Republic of India. Read about the 85th birthday of the last king (with a great deal of historical information in general about the lost kingdom) and "For Goodness Sake, He's the King".

Monarch Profile: Emperor Bahadur Shah II of India

Bahadur Shah II has the distinction of being the last emperor of the Mughal rulers of India. At one time the Mughal Empire stretched across almost the entire Indian subcontinent and was a successor of the massive central Asian empire of Tamerlane or Timur the Lane, a descendant of Genghis Khan. Starting with Babur who first took control from the old Sultan of Delhi, the Timurid dynasty of the Mughal Empire reached its peak under Emperor Akbar the Great. Shah Jahan was one of his descendants, his most lasting legacy being the Taj Mahal which he built as a mausoleum for his beloved wife. The Taj Mahal remains the most famous Mughal monument though many of the most famous landmarks in India, Pakistan and elsewhere such as the Agra Fort and the Badshahi Mosque were also built by the Mughals. The centuries, however, had taken their toll by the time Bahadur Shah II succeeded his father, Akbar Shah II, the Mughal Empire was confined mostly to the environs of Delhi and little else.

The British East India Company had first gained influence working through native leaders and in 1803 they took control of Delhi from the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II who had already suffered numerous personal disasters. He was forced to become a pensioner of the East India Company and place himself under the protection of the British. At first the British maintained some respect for the nominal monarch but in 1835 the company had become strong enough that it stopped even the nominal position they had previously held as lieutenant of the Emperor, by this time Akbar Shah II. Thus, on September 28, 1838 he inherited a throne which wielded only nominal power and even then it reached only to the area around Delhi. The British East India Company paid the Emperor a pension so long as he gave them no trouble and allowed him to remain inside the Red Fort palace, the walls of which marked the boundaries of his little actual authority. It was a far cry from the Mughal Empire that once stretched across most of India, Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan and Persia. Now there was no doubt that the glories of the empire were in the past and Bahadur Shah had been informed by the Company that his imperial title would die with him.

Bahadur Shah had witnessed much of this change in his own lifetime. When he was born in 1775 the British East India Company was only a minor force on the coast with a few factories and outposts in the major cities but by the time he came to the throne at the age of 63 the company dominated the subcontinent. Zafar, his well known pen name, was not an ambitious or a warlike man, yet what he represented was to prove vital to the nationalists of India who desired to throw off the East India Company and restore Indian independence. His reign also saw the last great cultural flowering of the old India and the remnant of the Mughal Empire. Zafar himself was quite famous for his poetry and the new innovations and modern ideas for the west were which had just been introduced were discussed at great length as well as how these new ideas could impact the traditional Islamic and Hindu beliefs of the Indian people. It is ironic that this cultural renaissance came when the empire was effectively on its death bed. That death was to be hastened by the great Indian Mutiny of 1857.

Bahadur Shah was hardly in a position to be an effective rebel leader. He was an 82-year-old mystic and poet and certainly not a military commander by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, as the Mughal Emperor, the ruler of the last dynasty which had reigned over a united and powerful India he was naturally the one most people turned to for leadership, even if only symbolic. The Indian Mutiny had been brewing for some time as more and more people became fed up with the rule of the East India Company. The famous spark which ignited the conflict was when Sepoy troops employed by the company for the Bengal army were issued Enfield rifles with paper cartridges greased in animal fat that the soldier had to bite off with his teeth to load the rifle. The Muslim and Hindu soldiers refused as pig fat was considered unclean by the Muslims and cows were sacred to the Hindus and this was the straw that broke the camels back. They feared a conspiracy on the part of the company to convert the entire population to Christianity and a military revolt flared up which quickly spread to the civilian population.

The revolt reached Delhi on the morning of May 11, 1857 and the rebels immediately went to the Red Fort palace and clustered under the windows to the apartments of the Emperor and called on him to lead them. Many in the palace immediately joined the rebels but the Emperor took no immediate action. An unambitious man by nature he was sympathetic to the cause of the rebels but rather horrified by the horrific violence that had erupted. He remained rather hesitant the next day when he held his first formal audience in many years to meet with the sepoys and hear their petition. The scene was chaotic and somewhat unnerved the aged monarch but the rebels were adamant that they needed him to take charge of their movement as the only possible figure who could unite all India in the fight for independence. Although greatly troubled by the violence that had already occurred and which was sure to follow Zafar felt it was his duty to comply with their demands and accept their allegiance. In quick order the rebels proclaimed Bahadur Shah II Emperor of Hindustan.

When news of this event reached the countryside it caused more Indians to rally to the rebel cause. The European communities went into a siege mentality and many Muslim clerics began calling for a holy war against the British. The Emperor, however, firmly rejected such a move because he feared that to stir up such religious violence would only lead to internal conflict between the Muslims and Hindus of India. Once again the nobles and all sections of society swore allegiance to the Emperor and coins were issued in his name. Nonetheless, some claimed early on that the sepoys had coerced Zafar into allowing himself to be placed at the head of the rebellion. Additionally, his support did not make rebellion more popular with everyone in India. The Sikhs, for instance, turned against the mutiny and supported the British when Muslim rulers endorsed the emperor for fear (probably unjust) that the result would be an Islamic Indian empire. The rebels also had to rely on a rather shaky command structure since events were moving so rapidly. Although the Emperor was the symbolic leader in whose name all fought he did not have absolute control over the forces under his nominal command.

To command the army Zafar chose one of his sons who had petitioned him to lead the rebellion, Mirza Mughal, who had no real military experience. He set about his duties with zeal and tried to make a formal military out of the disparate band of freedom fighters and provide billeting, provisions and a structured command system. However, enthusiasm is no match for experience and when Bakht Khan arrived; who was a veteran of the British forces, the Emperor placed him in command and gave Mirza the post of quartermaster general. All of this had to be done quickly because the Indian rebels were about to feel the full military might of an alarmed British Empire, fresh from victory in the Crimean War. Troops poured in from all directions; from Great Britain, across Persia from the Crimea and diverted from China and naturally Delhi was a major prize for both practical and symbolic reasons. The British also took particular aim at the Emperor and were determined that their counter-attack would bring a final end to the Mughal Empire which had stood for so many centuries.

When the British forces arrived they cut a bloody swath through India as they marched on Delhi, arriving on July 1. The East India Company had a relatively small force to besiege the city with but they had the advantages common to the proud military tradition of Great Britain: experience, training and discipline. For nearly three months the siege dragged on and as more Indian rebel troops arrived they made some attacks on the British but the company forces had little difficulty in driving them off. One of the British officers wounded in such an attack was a young Neville Chamberlain. The lack of any real success despite a significant numerical advantage worried the Emperor and he began refusing offers of help. His own control over the city was rather weak; the rebel forces did not have a great deal of discipline and despite the odds it looked like it was only a matter of time before the British re-took the city.

Disease and privation seemed to be doing the British more harm than the sepoys and as other rebellions, such as in the Punjab, were put down more Company forces arrived to reinforce the siege of Delhi. The rebels began sending out peace feelers in August but the company considered their demands unreasonable. The Indians might have regarded the war as a fight for independence but from the British point of view it was a rebellion and those taking part were traitors who could expect little in the way of mercy. Major General Archdale Wilson commanded the British forces and by the end of the first week of September his artillery train arrived and in quick order the British mortars and heavy artillery knocked out the rebel defenses. The rebels were running out of ammunition (all of which had been captured from Company stores) and on September 14 the British launched their assault. The British broke through at the Kashmiri Gate and suffered heavy losses but struggled forward in a week of hard fighting street to street and house to house before reaching the magnificent Red Fort.

By that time the Emperor and his entourage had fled to the Humayun tomb. The British thought he was planning a last stand there and took a cautious approach. However, Captain William Hodson took his native irregular cavalry and rode to the tomb where he demanded that the Emperor surrender. Bahadur Shah first asked if things could not go back to the way they had been before (he had not, after all, instigated the rebellion) but Hodson assured him such an idea was ludicrous but did promise that he would be fairly treated and suffer no indignities if he surrendered immediately. The Emperor agreed and turned over his jewel-encrusted swords to the captain and rode out with great dignity into British custody. The captain remarked later about how regal the procession was and what a calming presence the mere sight of the Emperor had on the public. However, despite the promises made, there was to be no happy ending for the last Mughal imperial family. Bahadur Shah was put on trial by the British who tried to blame the entire uprising on him and paint him as some sort of scheming mastermind who orchestrated the whole mutiny. His three sons, including Mirza Mughal, who were captured with him, were all summarily shot by Captain Hodson who then looted their bodies. Bahadur Shah, after his trial, was found guilty, deposed and exiled to Rangoon in Burma where he lived until his death in 1862.

When the last Mughal Emperor passed away his body was thrown into an unmarked grave and the soil was carefully replaced so that in a couple of months there would be no trace as to where his remains were located. Nonetheless, a shrine of sorts stands nearby to this day in his honor as modern India considers him something of an early Indian nationalist and champion of Indian independence. Indians travel to his resting place as if on pilgrimage to the shrine of a saint and there are many public buildings and institutions in India named in his honor. It was a campaign, effectively, to reverse the British portrayal of him after the mutiny as an arch villain. The real Bahadur Shah was probably somewhere between the two extremes. I tend to think he was something of a genuine Indian nationalist. He certainly did not have a great deal to lose at that point and an awful lot to gain. However, he was also a realist who knew a victory over the British would be close to miraculous and as a peaceful poet I think he was horrified by the idea of a bloody war and was undoubtedly disgusted by the actions of even his own nominal followers. He was a victim of circumstances beyond his control from beginning to end, as often seems to be the fate of last emperors and the best that can be said about him is that he had no hand in the worse aspects of the mutiny but a genuine love for his country and was a dutiful monarch even in the worst of circumstances.

Monarch Profile: Emperor Akbar the Great of India

The man known as Akbar the Great was the third monarch of the powerful Mughal Empire which dominated most India and much of south central Asia. He would rule more of India than anyone in history up to the era of British colonial rule. He is remembered today as a great conqueror, builder, lawgiver and a fair ruler of a very diverse population, particularly in religion. He was born Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar on November 23, 1542 in Umerkot, Sindh (modern Pakistan) to Emperor Humayun and his wife Hamida Banu Begum. When his parents were driven into exile in Persia by the Pashtuns young Akbar stayed behind and was later raised by an uncle in what is now Afghanistan. He grew up strong and determined, very athletic and adventurous but without much of a formal education. He would be illiterate for his entire life and yet, rather like Emperor Charlemagne in the west, this did not mean he was ill-informed or unrefined in taste or habits.

When his father returned during a struggle over the succession Humayun captured Delhi but died shortly thereafter. At only 13 years old Akbar succeeded to the Mughal throne in 1556 though it was still a throne he had to fight for. However, military campaigns were to take up a considerable portion of his reign and Emperor Akbar proved more than up to the challenge. In the beginning his army was often led by Bairam Khan who was also guardian of the young emperor. Eventually, however, he launched a rebellion against his former charge and it took a difficult military campaign to defeat him and for Akbar to consolidate his rule and begin expanding his empire. His forces won a number of stunning victories that destroyed the power of the Hindu kings and extended Mughal control across Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India though it took about twenty years to accomplish it. No other Mughal emperor would ever surpass his achievements on the battlefield and the Mughal Empire would never be bigger or stronger than it was during his reign. Yet, as adept at warfare as Akbar was, that is not how he is most remembered today.

Instead, Akbar the Great is today known for his epic building programs, ushering in the magnificent Mughal style of architecture. He was also known for reaching out to the now sidelined Hindu elites of India. He took Hindu princesses into his harem, abolished the tax on non-Muslims in India and abolished the tax which had formerly been collected on Hindus whenever they went on a pilgrimage. In time the Muslim emperor was admired and revered by most of the Hindu population. His tactic of marrying the daughters of powerful Hindu rulers was also quite effective and it is estimated that by the end of his life Emperor Akbar had more than 4,000 wives! He not only tolerated Hinduism but even participated in some Hindu customs to show that he was truly their monarch as well.

Akbar the Great reformed the tax system, streamlined the government and greatly improved the lives of his people. His court was very cosmopolitan and included people from various nationalities and religious backgrounds. He enjoyed assembling Islamic scholars, Hindu teachers, Jesuit priests and so on for religious debates. He established friendly diplomatic relations with the Portuguese who had already established a number of fortresses on the west coast of India. When the Ottoman authorities harassed Mughal pilgrims making the Hajj there was even a plan developed by Emperor Akbar to attack Yemen in alliance with the Portuguese but nothing ever came of it. The Portuguese ultimately attacked on their own but were repelled by the Ottoman navy. At home, Akbar was something of a renaissance man, as interested in art, architecture, crafts, philosophy and religion as he was in war and government administration. His empire was remarkably religiously tolerant, though it must also be said that all of his officials were not as open-minded as he was and religious harassment if not outright persecution did occur, particularly regarding the Christians who were the weakest of the religions present in India at the time.

Emperor Akbar carried his religious tolerance to such an extent that by the end of his life there was an effort to create a unique religion combining aspects of all others, though the extent to which this was a serious quest for a true “religion” may be debated. In any event, most could agree on very little aside from the great esteem in which they all held their emperor and it dissolved after his death which came on October 27, 1605 in Agra. During his life, Akbar the Great had risen from royal but humble origins, was forced to fight for his inheritance, defeated his enemies, built an empire that dominated the subcontinent and gained international fame for the beauty, splendor and freedom of his dominion. He remains probably the most widely revered and celebrated Mughal emperor of India.

MM Video: Royal Sikkim

MM Video: Imperial India

Favorite Royal Images: Young Maharaja

His Highness Maharaj Sahib Narpat Singhji of Idar

Favorite Royal Images: Raja Raghubir of Bundi

HH Maharao Raja Raghubir Singh Sahib Bahadur of Bundi (1869-1927)

I love pictures and thought to start a series of posts on my favorite royal images, another of which is below in the post on King Edward III. However, for the first post in this series I had to go with the Raja of Bundi above. That has to be one of the greatest royal portraits ever -it really jumps out and grabs your attention!

Monarchist Destinations: Hawa Mahal

Of the multitude of royal sites of interest in India probably the most famous is the Taj Mahal. My personal favorite would have to be the majestic Mughal palace complex known as the Red Fort. However, one of the less well known but certainly memorable monarchist destinations in India is the Hawa Mahal in Jaipur. It was built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh and designed by Lal Chand Usta to resemble the crown of the Hindu god Krishna. Part of the Jaipur city palace it was an embelishment of the Zenana or harem where the royal women lived and this, in part, accounts for the striking face of the palace which was built to allow the ladies of the harem to see out onto the streets below without passersby being able to see in.

Inspired by Mughal architecture it was built in the Rajputana style, five stories tall and made of red and pink sandstone lined with white quick lime. The side facing the street is covered in 953 windows which both keep the inside cool and give the palace its name, the "Hall of the Winds". It is sometimes also referred to as the whispering or singing palace as the brilliant design was built so that the wind blowing through the windows would create a musical sound. Ramps are the only way to reach the upper levels and there is a courtyard inside with 2-story buildings on three sides and another on the east side that is 3 stories tall but only one room wide. It is definitely a sight to see and one of those monuments that, in its style, grandeur and creative design is very uniquely Indian.

Anniversary of the Red Fort

Today marks the anniversary of the completion of the famous Red Fort in Delhi, India in 1648. Originally called the 'Blessed Fort' it was built by the great Emperor Shah Jahan and was meant to be the crown jewel of his new capital city of Shahjahanabad which was to replace the former capital city of Agra. It remains one of the great monuments of the Mughal dynasty and a powerful symbol of the grandeur and glory of imperial India. It took roughly ten years to build the massive palace complex and imposing fortifications, the Delhi and Lahore Gates, the Rang Mahal where the Emperor kept his wives, the Pearl Mosque, and the massive "Life Bestowing Garden". The Red Fort of Delhi remained the seat of power and the most grand symbol of the Mughal Empire throughout the years of its height and slow decline. The last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah II lived there until the great Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. The Emperor was liberated by the rebels, proclaimed the ruler of a free India but was eventually captured by the British, who defeated the uprising and the aged monarch was brought back to the Red Fort as a criminal for trial. Nonetheless, the symbolism of the Red Fort remained constant. The British used it as their military headquarters during the period of the British Empire of India and when India became independent the occasion was marked by the raising of the national flag over the Red Fort by Prime Minister Nehru. To this day the political leaders of India make use of the Red Fort as a powerful backdrop to address the nation on independence day.